Rhino Numbers and Census

[Richprins]

Not a complete census. Some areas counted aerially and then extrapolatd. White rhino!

[Richprins]

Scientists started the survey last year, but were unable to finish

Surely a census must be done over a fixed period? This sounds wishy washy already...

[iNdlovu]

The minute there is an extrapolation, it is a guess. Why then use the word "exact"

It's a crock and their figures will over estimate so as to play down the crisis. All about saving face.

[Richprins]

[Lisbeth]

Original Source: The Telegraph

With a bullet in his rifle’s chamber and his hat in his hand – “if I have to run I don’t want to lose it” – Mmopi Tebogelo crawled through the dew-heavy grass towards the £300 000 prize lying in the open just 40ft ahead. A couple of squeezes of his trigger finger later, the two white rhino would be dead and their horns worth more than gold would be his, making him a very rich man.

Instead, Mr Tebogelo crept silently away, removed the round from the rifle that he carries for protection, and with his colleague, Gabriel Mpiping, noted the time and location of the sighting. The two men are wildlife rangers in Botswana’s Khama Rhino Sanctuary, where not a single animal has been poached since the reserve was founded 24 years ago.


Mmopi Tebogelo, right, and fellow ranger Gabriel Mpiping on patrol at the Khama Rhino Sanctuary. © Mike Pflanz

Starting with four white rhino, it now has more than 30, has relocated 28 others to restock other areas, and pays its significant costs with tourist receipts instead of charity or government subsidies.

This week, world leaders gather in London for a high-profile summit on how to stamp out the illegal wildlife trade, with the backing of the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge. But success stories like the Khama Rhino Sanctuary will likely be drowned out amid the gloom and stark statistics of the current poaching crisis. Five to ten percent of Africa’s remaining 400 000 elephants are killed each year, raising the mathematical probability of extinction within a decade or two. In South Africa, a rhino was poached on average every eight hours every day of 2013. Only 25 000 remain in the wild. Prices for horn and tusk have never been higher, bringing international criminal networks into the trade.

That is why places like Khama Rhino Sanctuary can offer hope, and a model to follow. Similar small programs flourish in Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia. ”Our number one focus has been to make local people aware that these animals are worth more alive than dead,” Moremi Tjibae, the sanctuary’s chief warden, told The Telegraph. ”If you poach a rhino, maybe you will benefit for today, and maybe tomorrow. If you protect it, everyone benefits, and their children, and their children’s children. All our schools and clinics, they are paid in part by money from tourists who come to see the animals.”

This is the “hearts and minds approach” to protecting Africa’s wildlife: winning local populations to your argument and demonising the poachers. Most conservationists favour it as the best long-term solution.

But in Zimbabwe, its shortcomings are made clear by Mike Dube, a ranger trained by the International Anti-Poaching Foundation (IAPF), which advocates for a paramilitary approach to confronting poachers. ”I’m proud of my job, but when I go home to my village, some people see me as the enemy,” he said. “Animals are something they find money from, even if just for meat. It is hard teaching people the value of protecting these animals.”

Damien Mander, the IAPF’s 34-year-old founder and a former Australian Special Forces sniper with a dozen tours in Iraq, is blunt about the softly-softly approach. ”Hearts and minds rolls off the tongue so neatly but it’s not yet worked, anywhere,” he said. “Meanwhile, we’re losing animals so fast they’re all going to be dead by the time we win over all these people. We need something happening on the ground, now, to stop the hemorrhaging, while the rest of the world talks about coming up with a solution.” He has brought the tactics and tools of the battlefield to the African bush: drones for aerial surveillance, night-vision scopes, ambushes, covert and overt patrolling, powerful modern weapons, intelligence gathering.

The British Army is training the Kenya Wildlife Service in similar methods. In South Africa, former SAS troops are doing the same with wildlife protection teams in private conservancies. Mr Mander’s perpetual show of force works. The last poachers to try their luck on the Stanley and Livingstone Private Game Reserve near Victoria Falls, where the IAPF is headquartered, were arrested three years ago. ”The three of them are now serving a combined 37-and-a-half years behind bars,” said Mr Mander.

Such successful prosecutions are rare. Evidence goes missing or is corrupted from the outset. Africa’s courts are overloaded, and many judges can be bribed. The maximum fine for poaching in Kenya was, until recently, £300. The Kenyans have just overhauled their Wildlife Act, significantly deepening punishments. Last month, a Chinese man found with 7.5lb of raw ivory was sentenced to seven years in a Kenyan prison or a £150 000 fine.

Still, “If you can’t handle evidence, or fill in a charge sheet, or take witness statements, even with good laws you’re pretty much screwed,” said Max Graham, the British head of Space for Giants, a Kenyan elephant charity. It has designed a handbook for judicial officials to lay out all the laws under which poachers can be prosecuted.

To some conservationists, jailing Africans caught with tusks, or pouring millions of pounds into drones or ranger patrols, or working to win community hearts and minds, is all fighting only one front in the war. Peter Knights, another Briton who heads the charity WildAid, argues that by souring the perception of ivory ownership or rhino horn use among those who currently pay so much for it, the demand will dry up.

“As a movement we’re putting a minuscule amount of money into this compared to the prevention side, the supply side,” he said. “We need to look far more closely at reducing the demand at the market end, where it’s sold.”

[Richprins]

The South African exerpts are all entirely on the spot and true! Khama sanctuary is a brilliant success story too, due in no small part to the Botswana presidential family's name being linked to it!

If we could have a "Zuma" rhino sanctuary here, it would work too! No jokes, that is how the mindset works!

[Richprins]

This is interesting:


https://www.environment.gov.za/mediarel ... ildlifeday




Handover of rhino to the Mdluli Tribal Authority

The gathering of around 500 people, including chiefs, community members and school children was an opportunity to recall the privileged interactions between wildlife and communities in South Africa, and worldwide. In South Africa, communities not only interact with wildlife as tourists, but benefit financially from the tourism services sector and also derive other values which are known and valued by different communities.

The theme of World Wildlife Day aligns perfectly with key wildlife matters in South Africa, including the fight against rhino poaching. The Minister said communities living in close proximity to the Kruger Park are often aware of the plight of the rhino and all the steps being taken by the government and institutions such as SANParks, as well as the private sector, to combat the scourge of rhino poaching.

“We are being robbed of our heritage by criminals with no respect for our nation and our pride as a people,” said Minister Molewa.

Wildlife crimes, including rhino poaching, are among the most significant syndicate-led crimes of our time. These crimes rank among drug trafficking, arms smuggling and human trafficking as the top syndicate crimes in the world today. South Africa is not immune to the challenges posed by crimes that have a significant impact on the environmentand ultimately the economy of our country through the effects they have on tourism and job creation. The crime of rhino poaching is real and South Africans from all walks of life, need to find solutions nationally, regionally and internationally to deal with these crimeseffectively.

“We need to join hands and work together to fight these criminals,” the Minister appealed. “These solutions need to be sought in partnership with stakeholders in the rhino and wildlife industries including communities, and with our partners within government especially the enforcement and security authorities in the country.”

The Minister, the Acting Chief Executive of SANParks, Mr Themba Mabilane, the Managing Executive of the Kruger National Park, Dr Abe Sibiya, chairperson of the Mpumalanga House of Traditional Leaders, Kgoshi Mathibela Mokoena, Kgosi Isaac Mdluli of the Mduli Tribal Authority and senior Department of Environmental Affairs and SANParks officials witness the capture of a rhino near Pretoriuskop prior to the start of the formal proceedings.

Kgosi Isaac Mdluli of the Mdluli Tribal Authority received the rhino during a ceremonial handover from the Minister. The rhino is one of five rhino being donated by SANParks to the Mdluli Tribal Authority as part of the community’s contribution to conserving these magnificent animals. The relocation of the rhino to Mdluli community land is an example of the sustainable utilisation of our country’s natural resources. It has become international practice to engage and involve communities in the conservation of natural heritage to ensure there is a buy-in into the conservation idea, and thus greater success in conserving our environment.

The land of the Mdluli Community, which straddles the Kruger National Park, was successfully restored to the community in 1998. This land is now part of a development partnership between the community and the Kruger National Park and has included the establishment of viable wildlife populations managed by the community.

With the future of the rhino being threatened by unscrupulous poachers, the role of local communities plays an important role in ensuring that these criminal are brought to book. Current analysis has revealed that a significant number of poaching incidents originate from around the Mdluli area.

The Minister said the donation of the rhino to the Mdluli community should serve as an incentive to encourage all communities to help in the fight against rhino poaching. It is hoped that ownership of these animals will promote awareness and increase the wildlife ecotourism potential of the community’s land.

“By placing the future of these five rhino in your care enhances the government’s belief and policy that the animals in national parks, provincial and private game reserves, are owned by all South Africans. This means that we all need to ensure they are protected for future generations,” said Minister Molewa.

South Africa’s policy on sustainable utilisation has resulted in the significant growth of our rhino population from 20 – 50 animals by the end of the 19th century to more than 18 000 animals today. This policy has been critiqued by some, but the result speaks for itself. South Africa is protecting just over 93% of Africa’s wild white rhino. This conservation success is directly linked and supported by South Africa’s sustainable utilisation policy.

Actions such as increasing the capacity of local communities to pursue sustainable livelihood opportunities and eradicate poverty are aligned to the government’s key priorities, including the People and Parks Resolutions adopted in 2012. Through the People and Parks Programme a common approach is sought to address emotive issues at the interface between conservation and communities.

[Richprins]

This is a good idea, potentially! A similar thing to a very successful KZN Parks initiative last year, IMO!



The Mdluli concession is centered around Nkambeni Camp, half inside and half outside the Numbi area, and part of greater Kruger,with traversing rights for guests, as far as I know? So rhino being put outside the fence, then, in a very small area.



The minister lost the plot a bit here:

South Africa’s policy on sustainable utilisation has resulted in the significant growth of our rhino population from 20 – 50 animals by the end of the 19th century to more than 18 000 animals today. This policy has been critiqued by some, but the result speaks for itself.


There was no policy of "sustainable utilisation" in the 19th century, nor when rhino were reintroduced to Kruger in the 20th century (1960's) ?

Since SP's policy, or 'gov's policy, has been implemented, rhino numbers have crashed!

But anyway, that is just a response to "critique"...

[Richprins]

A number of Kruger black rhino left for Botswana this week, Lowvelder reported yesterday!

[Richprins]

Speaking on the rhino population in the KNP, Mabunda outlined the results of a census taken a few months ago, saying despite the poaching onslaught, the 2013 rhino census in Kruger NP estimated that there are between 8400 and 9600 white rhino. These numbers were estimated by SANParks scientists using a 40% block count survey method.

The census took 3 weeks to complete in September, making use of 3 helicopters with a total of 220 flight hours. The bottom line is that escalating poaching, counteracted by increased anti-poaching operations, has resulted in relatively stable rhino numbers in Kruger since 2008. ”We are certain that without intense anti-poaching operations, Kruger’s rhino population would have begun to significantly decline by now” said Mabunda.


http://lowvelder.co.za/38385/battle-sas ... tensifies/


Nov. last year...found in an unrelated article...